Under Yahiko's stare, the leader of Akatsuki looked like a child who had done something wrong, bashful and completely at a loss.
"My hair…"
He struggled to come up with a flimsy excuse. "Once my chakra recovers, it'll go back to its original color."
Just as Yahiko was about to say something, Nagato's body from the mission scroll world began to turn transparent.
Immediately after, Team Minato, Team Kakashi, and the second-generation Akatsuki members who had come to this world with them also began to fade, including Izuna Uchiha, who had been revived because of Young Obito's SSS-rank mission. A milky-white glow spread over their bodies.
"It looks like we're leaving," Minato Namikaze told everyone.
Because Adult Obito was gradually leaving this world, his body turned from solid to transparent. The Masked Man's corpse, which he had been carrying on his back, lost its support and fell to the ground.
The White Zetsu outer layer had already peeled away, revealing a young man a few years younger than Nagato and the others. Half of his face was covered in scars, and one of his eye sockets was missing an eyeball.
"There's no time."
Minato Namikaze looked at everyone's disappearing bodies. He had to use the shortest possible time to help Nagato, Yahiko, Konan, and the others avoid the greatest danger.
"I think you've probably guessed it already. We're from the future of another parallel world."
"The greatest culprit, Black Zetsu, has already been dealt with by us."
Looking at the Masked Man Obito on the ground, he said to Yahiko, "He is my student, Obito Uchiha. He was once a boy with a personality very similar to yours."
Yahiko looked at the Masked Man Obito on the ground. This was the person who had once said a bunch of nonsense to Nagato, trying to brainwash him.
Obito.
Obito Uchiha!
Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan all looked toward the Uchiha boy who had saved them together with his companions.
Young Obito pushed the goggles on his forehead and said awkwardly, "To be precise, Minato-sensei and I are from the past. I'm Obito Uchiha from before I was declared dead during the Kannabi Bridge mission, before I met Madara Uchiha and Black Zetsu."
Minato Namikaze said to the members of the original Akatsuki, "The Obito in your world was used by Madara Uchiha and Black Zetsu."
"They killed the person most important to Obito, driving him into complete despair with this world. Then they tried to lure him into acting as 'Madara Uchiha' and carrying out a plan that claimed to save the world on the surface, but was actually a conspiracy to destroy the entire world."
At the mention of that, both Young Obito and Adult Obito's eyes filled with sorrow.
Bitterness quietly flowed through their hearts.
Yahiko stared dumbfounded at Young Obito, who had saved him, Nagato, and Konan.
Whether it was him or the people standing beside him, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Young Kakashi, Sakura Haruno, and Rin Nohara, all six of them had left a deep impression on Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan.
The teamwork those six children had shown while fighting Danzō and Hanzō had shocked the three of them. It was hard to believe their average age was only thirteen.
Three of them were only Genin from Konoha!
Konan was a girl, and Nagato was sensitive by nature. The two of them looked toward Adult Kakashi and Adult Obito Uchiha standing nearby. From their appearances alone, they could immediately tell that these were the grown-up versions of Young Obito and Young Kakashi who had saved them.
The two noticed Konan and Nagato's gazes and turned their heads away.
A trace of sorrow passed through them.
That brown-haired girl who had always been the one to smooth things over between them, Rin Nohara, was gone.
Yahiko, realizing this belatedly, immediately imagined what it would be like if he and Nagato lost Konan.
Minato Namikaze said, "I don't expect you to use the Rinnegan to revive him afterward, but I hope you can bring the matter of Danzō Shimura, along with Obito's corpse, back to Konoha. However…"
"If you're willing to help revive him, you can hand him over to a man in Konoha named Kakashi, as well as myself, who should be the Fourth Hokage of this world by then, and my wife, Kushina Uzumaki. We'll watch over him."
Minato Namikaze believed that bonds and coincidences were often wondrous things.
Because in another world, at the time of Pain's attack on Konoha, Nagato had accidentally revived him. Naruto learned of Nagato and Konan's suffering, and out of gratitude and empathy toward them, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Obito, Kakashi, and Rin desperately tried to save Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan in this world.
And while Minato was late in arriving to meet them, that gratitude and resolve had been conveyed to the three of them through the battle between those six children and Danzō and Hanzō.
After learning about Obito and the Masked Man's pain, Minato could not say with absolute certainty, but he knew that there was a very high chance Nagato would ultimately choose to help this world's Kakashi and the Fourth Hokage revive Obito.
Adult Obito looked at Kyūsuke, Daibutsu, and the dozens of other original first-generation Akatsuki members.
"Saving you in this world can't atone for what I did back then, but it does make me feel a little better."
His words were vague, but Nagato, Konan, and the second-generation Akatsuki members from the same parallel world as him all understood.
The original Akatsuki members, along with this world's Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan, roughly understood what he meant too.
Yahiko said to Minato Namikaze, "Akatsuki will fulfill your request. We'll hold fast to our original purpose, carry on Jiraiya-sensei's will, and keep moving toward true peace."
It was the answer Minato Namikaze had expected. He smiled and said nothing more.
Then Yahiko looked at the thirty-two-year-old Nagato and Konan from the future world. "The peace I want isn't built on your sacrifices. I just want you to be happy forever."
He neither denied the atrocities committed by the second-generation Akatsuki nor affirmed future Nagato's unwavering resolve. Instead, Yahiko used another way to convey his thoughts to this world's Nagato and Konan.
Although he could not know exactly how Nagato from another world had walked step by step to this point, abandoning their old organization uniforms and putting on these black robes with red clouds,
Yahiko knew that path must have been covered in thorns.
Just before their bodies turned completely transparent,
Yahiko said to Konan, "Take good care of Nagato. Live happily with him."
"You two…"
He remembered the scene of the two of them leaning against each other when they thought he was gone, Nagato's hand tightly holding Konan's.
Yahiko's final words were spoken with his back to Nagato and Konan of his own world. He did not make a sound. Only his lips moved, opening and closing, but Nagato, with his withered body, pale skin, white hair, and Rinnegan, could see it clearly and read the meaning.
"Yahiko! I…"
The scene before his eyes changed into the dining hall of the Konoha Missing-nin Inn.
The words he had wanted to say were meaningless now.
Nagato lowered his head. His face turned even paler, and his mind was a mess of confusion.
Why would Yahiko say that?
Had he misunderstood something?
He and Konan didn't…
They didn't mean it that way…
He knew Yahiko liked Konan the most. How could he possibly make a move on Konan?!!
What exactly was going on?
Nagato stayed in a daze, standing blankly in the dining hall of the Missing-nin Inn. Konan was worried about his condition, while everyone else exchanged glances, hesitating over whether they should return to their rooms.
Obito Ōtsutsuki, who had not been able to join this time travel trip, happened to be enthusiastically helping finish off his share of the six hundred billion red bean cakes.
When more than a dozen living people suddenly appeared beside him, the red bean cake in his mouth slid straight down his throat without being chewed, nearly choking Obito Ōtsutsuki to death.
"Cough, cough!!"
Obito patted his chest and forced the stuck red bean cake down, then asked what had happened.
Still in a daze, Nagato directly said that Yahiko had somehow misunderstood him and Konan, and had even urged the two of them to be together.
Only after saying it did he realize what had come out of his mouth. He looked up and saw Konan's shocked gaze, along with the indescribable expressions of everyone in Akatsuki. Even Obito Uchiha looked like he could hardly bear to watch.
Seriously, did this Missing-nin Inn come with an intelligence-lowering buff?!!
Damn it!
The people of Akatsuki were horrified. Even their leader had turned into this. What were they supposed to do with someone like Hidan in the future?!
"Back when Yahiko was still alive, you once lost control of the Rinnegan's power in Amegakure and saved two people. Afterward, you were afraid of your own power. When Konan comforted you, you grabbed her hand. Yahiko was standing nearby at the time, and his face was as sour as a durian. You two didn't know that, did you?" Obito Ōtsutsuki sipped his tea while spoiling it for them.
Konan and Nagato's eyes widened. That incident…
They had forgotten it long ago. Or rather, they had never taken it seriously at all!!
"Don't let the way I, Naruto, and Yahiko usually look all careless fool you. We're actually pretty sensitive," Obito Ōtsutsuki said to himself. "But don't worry too much about it. Ours is a hot-blooded shonen anime, not a romance anime. Stuff like that only gets brushed over and won't have much impact."
When he was a twenty-nine-year-old uncle, while Rin from his own world was still only thirteen even after being revived, Obito Ōtsutsuki had already given up.
As a member of the Police Force, Shisui kept using "minimum three years, maximum death penalty" to disgust him whenever he had nothing better to do.
Damn it, he was clearly getting revenge for Itachi!
He really couldn't adjust to this world. He really couldn't!
"What do you mean by hot-blooded shonen anime and romance anime?" Konan asked suspiciously.
Minato stopped Obito Ōtsutsuki from the quiz world from telling more people that their world, just like The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, was a book with Naruto as the protagonist.
It did not seem like anything too important, so Konan did not keep asking.
But Hidan was very interested. He chased after Obito Ōtsutsuki, asking what hot-blooded shonen anime was, what romance anime was, and whether there were any anime about Jashin-sama.
"There aren't any about the Cult of Jashin, but there are plenty of cult CPs."
"Cult CP?!"
Hidan's eyes were practically shining.
Obito Ōtsutsuki gave him an icy glance. "For example, some people think you and Kakuzu are a couple."
A couple… meant…
What?!!!